Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproduction
Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.
Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at the University of Osaka, said rapid progress is being made towards being able to transform adult skin or blood cells into eggs and sperm, a feat of genetic conjury known as in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG).
His own lab is about seven years away from the milestone, he predicts. Other frontrunners include a team at the University of Kyoto and a California-based startup, Conception Biosciences, whose Silicon Valley backers include the OpenAI founder, Sam Altman and whose CEO told the Guardian that growing eggs in the lab “might be the best tool we have to reverse population decline” and could pave the way for human gene editing.
Not necessarily at that exact number, replacement is 2.1 which is what I’m actually proposing
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Depopulation to a lower level will bring unnecessary hardship to the older generations and slow down technological progress.
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My grandfather went to the bathroom in the outhouse (I know because I visited him). The improvement in the modern lifestyle is huge. You just don’t know because you grew up with running water and didn’t grow your own chickens for eggs
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A stable human population of 9 billion cannot have endless growth in population, but you can conceivably endlessly improve people’s lifestyles through technological improvement (well, until we know everything there is to know about science)
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The markets would be growing as productivity is always growing, and there’s real wage growth as well, so there’s more goods and services people consume over time.